Visualizing Virginia

Welcome to Visualizing Virginia – a collection of public-use tools for understanding and exploring demographic dynamics across the Commonwealth of Virginia, using the most recently available data. The collection of seven visualizations depicts Virginia’s population size, growth, and age, as well as education, income, poverty, and employment. These “snapshots” capture and display the rich, diverse characteristics of the Commonwealth’s 133 localities, how those localities aggregate into regions, and how the regions assemble into the Commonwealth as a whole. Collectively, these visualizations demonstrate clearly how statewide averages or data mask widely varying characteristics in the places where Virginians live and work. View the press release.

What Can I Learn?

Visualizing Virginia brings to light important facts about the population of the Commonwealth. Across the visualizations you can see how these seven leading demographic dynamics play out in each of Virginia’s 133 localities. So, rather than assuming that a statewide fact is true for each community in Virginia, you can identify the outliers and more accurately assess how a policy or program might serve needs.

In addition, all localities are color-coded (and, if on a map, grouped) by region. As a result, distinct regional patterns emerge from ground up, providing intuitive comparisons of differences across Virginia’s regions.

Click on each of the thumbnails below for a larger map and a short analysis of each demographic characteristic.